One of John Williams' more haunting works for the films of Steven Spielberg bows on vinyl from the Mondo label: his soundtrack to the 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The 2LP set, recreating the original soundtrack album on either red and blue or white 140 gram vinyl (remastered by James Plotkin), is packaged in a Tyvek gatefold jacket - that's right, the high-density polyethylene material that protects structures from moisture that you've seen on a construction project or two - with paper inner sleeves and a translucent obi made of vellum. (Jordan Christianson is the product designer while Jesse Michael Taylor is credited with layout.) An insert features new artwork by Sara Wong and liner notes from Spielberg (it is not known if they're carried over from his original note from the soundtrack CD).

Loosely based on the short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss, A.I. is at once classic Spielberg while also being a rather anomalous film in his body of work. Set against the backdrop of rising sea levels consuming the East Coast in the early 22nd century, the film follows David, a "mecha" or living robot played by Haley Joel Osment whose programming enables him to love, offering solace to a couple whose child was rendered comatose by a disease. When the human boy is miraculously revived, David is left abandoned to a world openly hostile to androids and teams with a mechanical fugitive (Jude Law) to learn how to become a "real boy" after the story of Pinocchio and regain his mother's love.

The project was developed over decades by Stanley Kubrick, who didn't feel that the story could be told until massive advancement in computer generated imagery that took Hollywood by storm in the early '90s. Kubrick, in turn, handed a screen story developed by Ian Watson over to Spielberg, who adapted that story into a screenplay of his own, only the third time he'd penned a script after Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the Tobe Hooper-directed Poltergeist (1982). The finished product was a dark, oddly hopeful meditation on the nature of humanity and affection that combines key elements of Kubrick and Spielberg's storytelling styles - including the wrenching finale. A.I. has arguably grown in reputation over the last two decades.

Williams' score similarly homages the best of Kubrick's filmography with his by-now standard collaborations with Spielberg (their 17th film together). Alternating between restraint and eventual thematic catharsis, it's one of the rare Williams scores to feature an end-title song, "For Always," recorded by celebrated soprano Lara Fabian as well as a duet between Fabian and a then largely-unknown baritone named Josh Groban. Mondo's presentation of the original album - a non-chronological assembly of parts of the score (later released in full as a 3CD set by La-La Land Records in 2015) - is a treat for John Williams vinyl collectors, and it's available to order now at the link below.

John Williams, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Music from the Motion Picture) (released as Warner Sunset 48096, 2001 - reissued Mondo MOND-313, 2025)

LP 1

Side A

1. The Mecha World
2. Abandoned in the Woods
3. Replicas
4. Hide And Seek

Side B

1. For Always - Lara Fabian
2. Cybertronics
3. The Moon Rising

LP 2

Side C

1. Stored Memories and Monica's Theme
2. Where Dreams Are Born
3. Rouge City

Side D

1. The Search for the Blue Fairy
2. The Reunion
3. Where Dreams Are Born - Lara Fabian & Josh Groban